Power At Work Power At Work Blogcast #30: Experts Analyze BLS’s 2023 Union Members Survey
During this blogcast moderated by Seth Harris, Former top Biden White House labor advisor, former Acting U.S. Secretary of Labor, and a Senior Fellow at the Burnes Center for Social Change at Northeastern University, our guest labor experts will react to and analyze the Bureau of Labor Statistics 2023 Union Member Survey, which reports on how many American workers are union members as well as America’s union density rate --- in other words, the percentage of workers in unions. This blogcast was aired and recorded live on January 23.
This blogcast features Vonda McDaniel, President of the Central Labor Council of Nashville and Middle Tennessee and AFL-CIO Executive Council member, and Heidi Shierholz, President of the Economic Policy Institute as they analyze BLS's 2023 Union Members Survey results.
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Vonda McDaniel joined the United Rubber Workers (URW) in 1992 at the Bridgestone-Firestone Lavergne Plant, where she has worked for the last 26 years. Shortly after joining the Union, she became a Shop Steward which began her Union journey. In 1995, URW merged with the United Steelworkers (USW), opening up new opportunities for her as a young activist. Vonda was trained in the USW’s Women of Steel initiative, which equipped her with vital tools to become a leader in her Union and community. She went on to become a trainer in the program herself. After 10 years as a local Union Pension and Insurance Representative, Vonda was elected President of the Central Labor Council of Nashville and Middle Tennessee in 2013.Heidi Shierholz, who served the Obama administration as chief economist at the Department of Labor, has been a consistent and leading voice for a worker-centered policy agenda that prioritizes economic and racial justice. Taking the helm at EPI after former President Thea Lee departed to work for the Biden administration, Shierholz is strengthening EPI’s ability to deliver economic analysis that challenges and transforms the mainstream narrative about the economy. Under her leadership, EPI is focused on fighting for and winning federal, state, and local legislative and regulatory reforms that support collective bargaining; increase worker power; improve wages, benefits, and working conditions; and reduce racial and gender inequities.